People it seems, are creatures of habit. Once they do something a few times they tend to do it more often until they do it on a regular basis. To be clear, I am not talking about habits that are detrimental to our existence, rather, the patterns of things we do mostly without realizing it.
Why do we do these things?
Because it has always been done that way or maybe it is just something that was picked up along the way.
While going down the rabbit hole that is the internet I ran across a story that made me question a few of my own patterns I have developed over the years, some without realizing it.
The short story involves a pot roast and this is the link: The Pot Roast Principle Psychology Today
The TLDR; is this, someone questioned why her mother cut the ends off a pot roast and after going back through several generations of family to her great grandmother and got the answer of "When I was first married we had a very small oven, and the pot roast didn't fit in the oven unless I cut the ends off.". Three generations of mothers had been cutting the ends off of a pot roast because it had to be done to fit an oven many years in the past. I cannot say if the story is true or not but this kind of thing led to my coining the extension cord theorem many decades ago.
The extension cord theorem: Nothing is more permanent than that which we call temporary.
It was inspired at a company I worked for at the time and in one of the places there was an extension cord in place from before I started and it was still there over eight years later. There had been talk about running a proper power conduit for years but it never happened while I was there.
The other part to this phenomenon is following advice that may or may not be proven out in a scientific study.
10,000 steps per day.
This is something I can recall hearing about most of my life and have achieved a few times. My usual daily step count is somewhere around 4,000 - 6,000 steps. One source I found has the origin as this.
Do we really need to walk 10,000 steps a day
snip
The 10,000 steps a day target seems to have come about from a trade name pedometer sold in 1965 by Yamasa Clock in Japan. The device was called “Manpo-kei”, which translates to “10,000 steps meter”. This was a marketing tool for the device and has seemed to have stuck across the world as the daily step target. It’s even included in daily activity targets by popular smartwatches, such as Fitbit. snip
There is some more of the history there and a interesting report that was done by Harvard Medical School had this to say.
snip
Question Are increased numbers of steps per day associated with lower mortality rates among older women?
Findings In this cohort study of 16 741 women with a mean age of 72 years, steps per day were measured over 7 days. Women who averaged approximately 4400 steps/d had significantly lower mortality rates during a follow-up of 4.3 years compared with the least active women who took approximately 2700 steps/d; as more steps per day were accrued, mortality rates progressively decreased before leveling at approximately 7500 steps/d.
Meaning More steps taken per day are associated with lower mortality rates until approximately 7500 steps/d.
snip
OK, 7,500 is 3/4 of the way to the original number based on a sales gimmick and I am walking around 53% - 80% of the 7,500 most days. Not quite sure what to make of it yet.
Sporting Rituals
This is something that has been well documented about for both sports players and the fans watching. It can run the gamut from when players get up and what they eat and wear to the entire routine of fans up to the end of the game. I am not going to put any details other than it makes no difference what jersey you wear, if it has been washed since the last winning/losing season or not, or that you have on your "lucky socks" that have yet to be washed since the last time your team won several years ago. It has no bearing on what you team does when they play.
Everyday Rituals
You might not realize it but every single day at some point you do exactly (or as close as it could be) the same things. Weekends may be the exception but they are probably pretty close to the same weekend to weekend. Think about what you do in the morning and how many times do they repeat over a week? My morning ritual has changed over time but for most of the past year (except for those things called vacations that are a distant memory) are pretty much the same.
Get up between 4:50 AM and 5:30 AM Hit the bathroom and change into my pre-shower outfit (sweats & shirt) Turn on the computer Make the coffee Water the cats (water in the bowl) Login to computer and start catching up on the overnight news Finish making the coffee and it clean up Finish catching up on the news, check podcast player for new items Workout, usually walking about one to one and a half miles Have breakfast (usually breakfast burrito and banana) Be ready to work (if weekday) around 8:00 AM, my commute is very short.
Seven days a week, pretty much the same thing.
For over a year at this point.
I need one of those vacation things.